We were lucky to catch up with Desiree recently and have shared our conversation below.

Desiree, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

My meaningful projects are working at red bear brewing as the drag entertainment coordinator and creating my show (voted best dc drag show 2022) desiree dik’s: oddball . At red bear, I created “Slay them”, a new comers competition where drag artists perform their best number and he winner is chosen by audience Votes. Winning that month gets them in the pageant which will be in March. We have crowned our first winner evry pleasure from Puerto Rico, and our second winner from Richmond, Virginia Thea trickality . Im currently on my third season of slay them about to see who will be our third crowned winner starting every first Friday in august. The final project that I am currently working on is the pageant I created out of oddball called the Spookiest Ghoul, our current winner is Baphomette. I created this because we didn’t have a creative and spooky pageant where contestants can be weird and win at the same time. We will be crowning our second winner of Spookiest Ghoul on sept 22.

These projects are so meaningful to me because when I was a baby drag performer I didn’t know where I was heading but I knew I wanted to create shows that were diverse in both types of art and performers, and bring the community together. I also wanted to create spaces where any performer can become their own drag artist in the city and grow.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I got kicked out of my home at the age of 16 for being gay and stayed with a couple friends’ houses for a couple of years. On my 17th birthday, the people who I was staying with gave me (literally) the gift of drag by signing me up for a spot at Freddie’s Beach Bar. I tried it and it was a glimpse of the attention I never got as a child. Plus, it came with some dollar bills as an extra bonus. I dabbled in and out of drag for a few years, but finally, with some support from my fiance, I started taking drag seriously in 2014. I started doing free gigs, including the Zodiak competition at Freddies. I did a competition called drag wars (I lost) at Cobalt (RIP), and went for Miss Gay Peru in 2016 (lost). Luckily, the other girl (winner) had some beef with the pageant coordinator and boom, I was the title holder.

Then I started looking for venues to start producing my own shows, where I was free to express myself and execute my own ideas. In the beginning years of my drag career, I went through many challenges, including being put down and shunned by many performers in the DC community. I felt it was time to build a different type of community, one that is more equitable and supportive, and also show the DC audience new types of performers and drag. I started providing a stage and support for new drag performers in the city, starting at Uproar, then Slash Run, various brunches and night show venues, and eventually at Red Bear Brewing. I want all members of the queer community in DC to have the opportunity to try drag, so that they can find themselves, have the freedom to perform their own ideas, and run into other queer people who can become part of their family.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

In the beginning of my drag career, when I was looking for venues, I was very happy and grateful to obtain the shows that I had because they helped make me the host, drag entertainer, and business person I am today. Some venues, unfortunately, have not understood my vision for drag shows, even though the shows were successful, bringing in customers and money weekly and monthly. The owners had issues with the type of drag and people I had booked and eventually let me go. Some people expect drag to be one thing and I am understanding that it is their business. I would say, not to be shady, but many other drag artists have tried working with the same past venues and they have not been successful either…coincidence I think not.

But regardless of all the rejections, I still messaged venue after venue, until I had places that did support my ideas and the performers that I booked. I turned those no’s into motivation to create the shows and space I wanted and it worked. Red Bear Brewing took my ideas and me as the lead drag artist / host, and as a team we have become one of the best drag show venues in the NOMA area.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

So during my baby drag times, I hosted and performed in many shows in many different venues for little or no pay. These shows I did (and some I still do) without financial support of the venue, the venues provided the space and opportunity. While I am grateful for those opportunities, these businesses need to start compensating their artists appropriately.

Now some people think drag performers just show up to a venue, ask for a show and a mic, and bam, you’re ready to be famous…yeah no. That almost never happens, and if it does, then well condragulations. I agree that new performers need to build themselves up, do some free gigs / competitions / pageants, and support local drag shows to get themselves out there (just like I did for many years). But there’s also part that is on the venues that need to start paying drag artists for what they are worth. I have been doing drag for 9 years and just got a “raise” now. My “raise” comes from my experience, quality of drag, quality of hosting, promoting / advertising abilities, the uniqueness of the drag that I bring and so on. But I do believe venues make good money doing drag shows. Some bring in famous drag artists, many of whose booking fees are higher than my rent. (I live in DC so that’s a lot). Now we all love a good celebrity, but make sure to treat your local drag artists the same. We are all trying to make a living and drag is expensive. Take into consideration how we treat and pay the local drag artists who keep the community alive. Like I always say #supportlocaldragorwedie.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/desireedik69/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DesireeDik69/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/DesireeDik69
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@desireedik
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@desireedik

Image Credits
1. washington blade 2. Chris Suspect – @csuspect 3. myself 4-7 Ambienteye photography – Katherine Gaines 8 keylime photography – @keylimehi